Day: February 25, 2014

Dear Sir or Madam:

On February 19, 2014 the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s (ATSDR) “Evaluation of mortality among Marines and Navy personnel exposed to contaminated drinking water at USMC Base Camp Lejeune: A retrospective cohort study” was published (http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune/mortalitystudy.html). 

The purpose of this study was to determine whether exposures of Marine and Naval personnel to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune increased risk of mortality from cancers and other chronic diseases. The study focused on 154,932 Marine and Naval personnel who began active duty service during April 1975 to December 1985 and were stationed at USMC Base Camp Lejeune anytime during this period. A comparison cohort consisted of 154,969 Marine and Naval personnel who began active duty service during April 1975 – December 1985, were stationed anytime during this period at USMC Base Camp Pendleton, but were not stationed at Camp Lejeune during this period. The study relies on ATSDR’s previous water modeling estimates (http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune/watermodeling.html) of past exposures to a class of chemicals known as “volatile organic compounds” (VOCs) in water.

This study is one of several health initiatives that ATSDR is expected to complete in the next several years. For more information about these studies, visit http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune/ or call (800) 232-4636.

Sincerely,